The Lexal Affair by DM Arnold (most read books TXT) 📕

The door to Seymor's office opened. “Good to have you on board, lad. Come on in.” Nyk sat across from Seymor's desk. “Do you have any questions?”

“Only about a thousand. What exactly will my responsibilities be?”

“As I told you, this is a training post. If you do well, you'll be prime candidate to take over my job -- when I retire that is. For starters, we'll place you in charge of our western operations. It includes your old haunts in Wisconsin -- though we'll keep that facility shut 'til we can get someone to man it. I'll want you in charge of our plant breeding operation, too. It's in Des Moines and run by Earth people. We're careful to keep our prices non- competitive, but we manage to make a modest profit -- enough to keep it credible.”

Nyk nodded, recalling his training on the Earth economy.

“I'll start by introducing you around the office.” Seymor stood and headed toward the door.

“I know Jaquie is an Earth person. How many other Florans work in this office?”

“Assume everyone's a native, lad -- unless you know for sure otherwise.”

Nyk sat at his desk and plugged in his laptop computer. He began reviewing the files of the Floran Agents now reporting to him.

He opened the file for Grynnya Quinn. He recognized her surname from his translation of Koichi Kyhana's journal. Bryan Quinn was Chief Engineer aboard the Floran. After the warp jump accident, it had been Quinn who rigged the starship's engines for near-relativistic velocities permitting the colonists to reach the planet they named after their vessel.

Nyk pondered for a moment the temporal paradox. Here he was, on late- twentieth- century Earth. The Floran expedition was two hundred years in Earth's future; but it was also five thousand years in his past. And, here he was -- loving and living with an ancestor to the man who founded his world -- the man whose name, if not consanguinity, he shared. Reporting to him was a woman who also shared the name of a founding father.

He perused the file. Grynnya was another Earthbound Floran. She was their medical liaison, so to speak, and as such was responsible for the health of the Florans who walked the surface of their world of origin. Using the Earth name of Nellie Hogarth, she was a registered nurse and worked in a hospital in Kansas City.

Seymor stuck his head into the office. Nyk looked up. “I've been looking over the file of one Grynnya Quinn,” he said.

“Ahh, Grynnya. Watch your step with her.”

“What do you mean?”

“... you'll find out. Say, lad, care for some lunch at Bronfmann's? They make a mean pastrami sandwich.”

Nyk closed his file, locked his laptop and followed Seymor out the door.

Nykkyo sat in the waiting room flipping through a six-month old edition of Readers' Digest. He heard the door to an inner office open. A middle-aged woman escorted Suki from the office. “I'll see you next week.” Suki nodded.

Nyk stood and approached her. “Are you all right?” Suki nodded again, took his hand and walked with him. He pressed the call button for the elevator. The doors slid open. He stepped in and pressed the button for the lobby. “Are you hungry?” She shrugged her shoulders.

He led Suki down the street. He pointed to a Chock-Full-of-Nuts shop. “Would you like to get a sandwich in there?” She nodded.

Nyk took a bite from his cheese sandwich. “Was it a difficult session?” Suki nodded again. “Care to talk about it?” She shook her head. “I think it would help to talk.”

“She said she thinks I was molested as a child.”

He looked into her face. “When you were in the hospital on Floran -- Dr Krulla thought so, too. Do you remember any...”

She shook her head. “Maybe I've suppressed it. She suggested we try hypnosis. I don't know about that ... sometimes when they go looking for something -- they find it -- whether it's really there or not.”

Nyk gulped his mouthful. “Be careful.”

Suki nodded. “I need to get comfortable with her before taking that step.” She took a bite from her tuna salad sandwich. Nyk reached across the table and took her hand. “Thank you for coming with me. I wouldn't have had the courage to go in there alone.”

He dumped their refuse into the trash bin and headed out the door, holding her hand. She walked with him toward Grand Central, her eyes fixed on the pavement. Nyk moved closer to her and slipped his arm around her waist. She looked up, smiled and leaned against him. “As soon as you put your arm around me -- the pain went away.”

They reached Grand Central and stood, holding hands on the outbound platform. Nyk craned his neck to look down the line for the train. He could see the headlamps reflected on the rails and tunnel walls.

The train pulled to a stop. Nyk climbed aboard, took a seat and Suki sat beside him. “Do you want to tell me more?” Nyk asked.

“Not now. I just want you to hold me.”

Nyk settled into his seat, his arm around her. She leaned against him. The train left the station and Nyk began counting the stops until it arrived at their destination in Queens.

Nyk lay in bed, his hands locked behind his head. Suki emerged from the bathroom in her short robe, her long, black hair clipped into a ponytail. She slipped off the robe, ran her hands along her abdomen and then slid into bed.

He put his arm around her and she cuddled to him. “It was a rough evening for you. Are you still thinking about it?”

She nodded. “Nykkyo, I'm scared. There's much about me you don't know -- much of which I'm ashamed. I'm afraid you'll learn something and decide I'm not worth bothering with.”

“It's not likely. As to your past -- I wouldn't change any of it. Those were the events that formed you, and without them -- you wouldn't be ... you. It's you I love.”

“You're so sweet.” She kissed his cheek.

“Feeling better?”

“A bit. There's something about tonight's session I want to share. Do you remember that Indian dinner when we told each other our sad, sad stories?”

“Yes. I remember you told me how you entered into an arranged marriage with a man you did not love -- how he abused you and beat you. You told me you fled from him and lived with an old friend from your university days.”

“I'm afraid it wasn't quite like that.”

“That's not how it happened?”

“Well -- yes. I left out an important detail, though.”

“Which was...”

“It was my own behavior that brought it all about. You see, Nykkyo -- I never stopped loving Alice. Even after I had married, I kept seeing her. One night my husband left on a business trip. I had planned a tryst with Alice -- I invited her over. It turned out my husband's flight was cancelled and he rescheduled for the morning. He came home and found us. He said the worst things about Alice and me -- so I slapped him. He retaliated. I threw the first blow in that fight.”

“None of it justifies him beating you.” Nyk pondered, stroking her arm. “I suppose I understand why you wouldn't want to tell me that. We hardly knew each other...”

“Nykkyo -- we still hardly know each other.”

“We had just met, and you wanted to explain what you were doing by yourself in Wisconsin.”

“There's more to it... I had lived with Alice during grad school, and I knew how dominating she was. I knew what I was in for, but I went to her, anyway. One reason I finally fled to Wisconsin was to be away from her. Now, I'm back in New York, and I'm afraid...”

“Alice has no hold over you.”

“She did once -- when I lived with her, she made me do the most humiliating things.”

“Like what?”

“I'd rather not go into it. I had such a need for her -- for her acceptance -- I submitted. My therapist asked me if I craved being dominated. I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe it's true.”

“I don't understand. Are you asking me to dominate you? It's not in my nature...”

“No, Nykkyo.” She wiped tears from her face. “You've shown me the light of pure love. I fear what lurks in the shadows. Alice works as a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Natural History. I'm sure in my job at NYU our paths will cross some day. I'm afraid of what might happen.”

“I understand your anxiety. Suki, on my world we've learned the best way is the direct way. I think you should tell Alice how you now feel for her.”

“My therapist said the same thing.” She kissed his cheek. “I don't need counseling when you're by my side.”

“Your situation is similar to mine with Senta. Even though I've filed for divorce, I very much wish to remain friends with her. I've told her so.”

“How did she react?”

He smiled. “Well -- Senta is a woman accustomed to having things go her way. It'll take a while for her to assimilate our new relationship. Florans are humans, after all -- and humans have faults.”

“I'm afraid Alice will have difficulty assimilating, too.”

“I trust you, Suki. You'll do the right thing.”

“That's the problem -- I don't trust me. ”

Nyk sat at the kitchen table. He could hear the shower running in the apartment above. Yasuko topped off his coffee cup and sat across from him. “How did it go last night?”

“I don't know. It's not easy for her.”

“Just getting her to go and to cooperate is an enormous step. She wouldn't have without you, Nick. Her father and I are grateful.”

He sipped his coffee. “Yasuko, was Suki molested as a child?” Her mother gaped at him. “I'm sorry, Yasuko, but it came up last night. Suki claims she can't remember.”

Yasuko shook her head. “I suppose dirty linen has to be aired sometime. I wasn't expecting it so soon.” She looked into Nyk's eyes. “I don't know for sure. I never had proof.”

“Her therapist wants to hypnotize her.”

Yasuko bit her lip. “I don't agree with that sort of probing. It's too easy to ... to...”

“To contaminate her memory?”

“Exactly.”

“Who would've done it? Her father?”

“Lord, no -- it wasn't George.”

“Who, then?”

“George's father seemed to have an unhealthy interest in her. He was a very peculiar man, Nick.”

“Suki told me some about him -- how he dressed in traditional Japanese clothing.”

“He did have a strange fascination with the old country. That foolish crest hanging on the wall is a product of his fancy. When George and I first married, we lived in the very apartment you and Sukiko now use. George's father lived downstairs. I ended up his de- facto housekeeper. He enjoyed having a real Japanese in the house -- I had to wear the kimono -- put my hair up in the traditional way. He even had me attempt to teach him Japanese. I'm no sensee -- I have no idea how to train someone in the language. I think he wanted me, physically -- though if he did, he never acted on those desires.”

“You think he may have with Suki?”

“I have my suspicions. She was a beautiful little girl.”

“That's not surprising -- she's a beautiful young woman.”

“I stopped using him as a baby-sitter and tried to make sure someone was in the room with him when Sukiko was there.” She shook her head. “It's not possible to watch someone twenty-four hours a day; seven days a week -- month after month, year after year...”

“You never pursued it?”

She shook her head. “No... You must understand my situation -- our situation. We depended on George's father for a roof over our heads. George was just starting out, and my own immigration status was unresolved. I was terrified I would be sent back to Japan and George and Sukiko would be left homeless. It wasn't until after her grandfather died that my status was sorted out. I've since become a citizen.” She stood and turned from him. “You'll learn soon enough. When you become a parent -- you do your best and hope it's good enough.”

Nyk stood and embraced her. “I'm sure you did your very best, Yasuko.”

“You are such a fine young man, Nick. My daughter is very fortunate...”

“Am I interrupting something?” Nyk heard Suki's voice. Yasuko pulled from him and adjusted her hair.

“Your mother and I were having a talk.”

“How are you feeling this morning?” her mother asked.

“Not too bad. Come on, Nick -- we'll be late.”

“Aren't you having breakfast?”

“No time, Mom -- I'll grab a bagel or something at the union.”

Nyk picked up his case and headed toward the front door.

“Sukiko -- wait.” Yasuko embraced her daughter and looked into her eyes. “I love you and I